


Delayed reloads

by EclipseMirror



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Frisk dies over and over again- that's the major death, Frisk takes a while to reload before continuing, Gen, No Specific Order, it causes some panic to those not knowing what to expect, short moment-in-times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 22:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7456314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EclipseMirror/pseuds/EclipseMirror
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The human passing through the Underground dies a lot. When they do, their SOUL shatters to rewind time. Some monsters know that this is natural, others do not.<br/>One-shot, short moment-in-time stories in a random order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Asgore

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya, Adorning here. I have laid off from writing for a while, but now I have a few ideas. Excuse my very random grammar. This series is made from the motivation of a small writing competition on the Undertale Amino forums, though it may not be posted there. Expect very, very inconsistent updates.

The Barrier was suddenly quiet again, the rushing pulses of white noise accompanied not by yelps of pain and the crackle of flame but by deep huffs of a lonely someone's breathing.  
Asgore allowed his trident to dissolve into spent magic, mind swimming with a mixture of grief and dismay as he stared at the tiny red heart floating in front of him. Its owner was nearby, scraped skin now pale, previously leaping and twisting figure now spread awkwardly across the ground. 

The body of a child always seems so much smaller upon death. Asgore was more familiar with the image than his own heart allowed it. The job never gets any easier, no matter how many times he told himself it will be. Knowing that this was the last human SOUL he needed to collect held no comfort; he knew humans well, and if he had learnt anything from every child that came before is that they have the power to turn time around, again and again until they realised the battle was impossible and there was nothing they could do. It still made his skin crawl to begin imagining exactly how many times he had to kill the same child before they gave up; exactly how many times he will have to kill this one before they follow the fate of the others.

The King of Monsters stretched out one white claw towards the small heart, careful to not make any contact. This human's SOUL radiated a pleasant warmth with its flare of inner power. Like Chara's, Asgore reminded himself with a bitter half chuckle that deteriorated into a sob. His poor, poor children. Oh, if they could see their pathetic excuse of a father now.  
Crack.  
The sharp noise jerked the Boss Monster out of his mindset. A web of fine cracks has started to form on the heart, spreading and growing until the SOUL shattered into halves and the halves into glimmering pieces.  
It has begun.

The last thing Asgore saw before blacking out was the unmistakable flash of a golden flower.


	2. Undyne

A quick twist of a trick spear and that was it. The vile human collapsed with a meek cry, its SOUL immediately drifting away from the body and losing the signature green of fixation magic.   
“WHOO!” a loud hearty cheer that could have come from a thousand monsters erupted from the empty mountain pass between Waterfall and Hotland, triumphing the howling wind. So loud, in fact, that Undyne had to take a quick guilty glance around to check if anyone had seen her untimely celebration before returning back to a more formal stance. 

Humans have strong souls, just like Alphys said. They apparently are also quite good at escaping. But in the end, no matter how much they run and hide, they were no match for Justice. No, wait, she had to compress her rush of pride for now. She will have to send the SOUL to Asgore so he could shatter the barrier and bring Monsterkind to the Surface. Everyone was waiting so long for this to happen. Unfortunately for Undyne, Hotland -being the worst region in the Underground- absolutely sucked. She will have to reach the CORE via the regular mountain pass. 

That noted, the fish monster snatched up the red heart and began to sprint towards her mountain peak again, rattling of armour announcing her insect-quick trail. But halfway to the peak, a sudden, sharp molten pain flashed through her left palm. Undyne immediately lets go of the offensive object and checked her hand. Her gauntlet was red-hot like the distant, winking magma beyond the rocky peak. She swore quietly, flinging the steel –or iron, or whatever metal it was- gauntlet off before examining the nooks that she still clung onto. Strange. She had scaled this mountain hundreds of times. There was no way it could burn her like that- she was sure.  
Then the answer hit Undyne like a bolt of fire. The SOUL. It floated below her position, the tip just out of her reach, its dull red glow taunting her failure. Nobody told her the SOUL would be too hot to hold. Not even anime. Undyne’s lip curled. “Stupid human,” she growled at the heart despite knowing that the human itself was too far gone to listen. “Tracking your quick little butt was tough enough. No need to make everyone’s lives even harder by REFUSING TO COME! IF I COULD BEAT YOU TO DEATH AGAIN, I WILL!” She took a false swipe at the SOUL to show what she meant.  
Only for it to crack and burst into little fragments like red glass.

The air stilled.

Undyne’s eye widened in horror. Did she really just accidentally destroy the SOUL –along with Monsterkind’s last hope- in her own frustration? Weren’t human SOULs supposed to be strong? “I- I didn’t mean that!” she whispered, hoping with all her SOUL that what happened was just the human’s conscious trick. That the red heart would reform.   
But it didn’t.  
A desolated cry escaped Undyne’s lips. If she was paying closer attention, she would see that the edges of her vision were fading. Her yell was fading. And slowly, all dissolved into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's pretend I didn't take months to finish this. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.  
> That being said, I had fun trying to capture Undyne's character ^_^


End file.
